PBG, PMC and PEC ground planes: a case study of dipole antennas

In this paper, a comparative investigation has been conducted to study the radiation characteristics of dipole antennas above an ideal PEC (perfect electrical conductor) surface, an ideal PMC (perfect magnetic conductor) surface and a realistic metallic PBG (photonic band-gap) surface. Because of the difficulty with other methods to accurately analyze the surface wave trapped in the PBG structure and the diffraction from the edge, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique based on the Cartesian coordinate system discretization is chosen as the simulation tool. FDTD is capable of predicting the electromagnetic behavior of intricate antenna structures radiating in a complex environment. Since this technique readily handles planar conductors, thin wires and inhomogeneous dielectrics, it could be extended to analyze the effect of human tissue on the antenna structure with PBG surface.